The Journey
by illman
Summary: John and Teyla start on their journey which will eventually lead them to face the Wraith. Sheyla. COMPLETE
1. Sacrifice

_ITLE: The Prophecy : Journey_

_AUTHOR: Illman_

_RATING: PG for some violence and language later on_

_SEASON: set 3 years after they have arrived on Atlantis_

_MAJOR CHARACTERS: mainly John Sheppard and Teyla Emmagen_

_DISCLAIMERS: The characters, setting, etc, all belong to MGM, Gecko,_

_the Sci-Fi Channel.... I own nothing._

_NOTE: Any mangled science, botched sentences and general oversights_

_are my fault. We haven't seen a lot about the Athosian culture yet, so_

_I'm making up many of the details._

_SUMMARY: The key to defeating the Wraith may lay in an ancient_

_prophecy. But are John and Teyla willing to pay the price?_

_ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Can you blame a fic on bad planning? This fic got_

_started a while ago when I had an entire day to kill at the airport_

_waiting for a flight. ._

_FEEDBACK: Sure, concrit as good as well_

_SPOILERS: nothing specific , maybe tiny bits of Rising_

_A/N: You should really read The Prophecy: Prophecy first, otherwise it probably will not make a lot of sense._

Perfect silent reigned over the ruins on Athos, as John and Teyla sat next to each other on the edge of a cliff. The incredible beauty of the scenery almost let them forget the turbulent events of the previous week and the challenges that awaited them in the future.

John smiled as he observed Teyla who was looking ahead, her mind miles away. Now that he knew that they were going to be all right, he trusted her implicitly. He had had no choice but to follow her to Athos, if he wanted to live, Athos held the last promise of a cure. John had never been afraid to die. He had risked his life for his men more than once. To die for a just cause or to die protecting one's men was one thing, dying of a freakish genetic mutation was another matter. Although he trusted Teyla in all matters, including when it came to the Prophecy, he still wished he had her faith in the words written thousands of years ago.

Teyla's hand on his shoulder dragged him away from his thoughts.

"You should go back to the Jumper and lie down again. You'll need your strength later." Teyla got up to her feet and offered to help him up. John hated to admit to weakness, but he had never felt to need to hide anything in front of Teyla. He gladly took the offered. He was still shaky on his legs, but with Teyla supporting him, he eventually reached the Jumper. Beckett didn't comment on their return, he just ordered John to lie down and rest some more. Not having the strength to get into an argument John complied, he went back to a horizontal position.

He hadn't been lying down for long when the door to the 'jumper was opened and Rodney appeared on the frame. He had been on the planet along with the exploration team. His face was read and he was panting slightly, obviously having run fast.

"It's fascinating. Most of the city is buried and completely destroyed, but there is a huge building, some sort of temple, the anthropologists claim. I'm getting enormous energy reading from inside." McKay told, speaking almost too fast to be understood.

"What's the problem?" Beckett asked.

"We can't get in, we need your help and that of John."

"John isn't fit to go anywhere and I'm not going anywhere." Beckett replied immediately.

John sat up. "I'm coming with you. It just might take me a while to get there." He said as he pushed himself to his feet, holding on the wall with both hands.

"You can't even stand up. You're going no where."

"I can. Rodney? Is there anything else in the City, aside from the temple?"

"No, most of it is buried deep underground and the rest is a pile of stones." Rodney replied.

"Then we have to go." Teyla joined to discussion. "But Dr. Beckett is right, John, you should stay here."

"You need me, remember, the gene. I'm going." John made two steps towards the exit of thee 'jumper before losing balance and falling into McKay, bringing them both to the ground.

Before John had a chance to realize what was going on, he was rolled over and roughly pulled to his feet. He tried to gather his bearing and noticed that it was McKay who had pulled him up and was now keeping him up with an arm wrapped around his waist.

Even though they were close to the ruins, it was late afternoon by the time they finally got there. John was ready to pass out when they finally reached the portal in the wall. The wall was a good 15 feet high, beyond it, a high structure was visible.

"The energy reading are coming from something behind that wall. We have tried everything short of C4 to get in. We think that the portal might respond to the natural ATA gene." Rodney summed up their knowledge so far.

"My people have been to the city, even though we believed that it would draw the Wraith to us. The stories told of a tunnel entrance. If we can't get in through the portal, we could search for the tunnel" Teyla suggested.

John was only half-listened to what his team members were talking about. All he wanted to do was sleep. Feeling Dr. Beckett's worried gaze on him, he leaned against the portal, letting himself slide to the ground. The moment he had however touched the portal, it vanished and John fell backwards as the supporting portal was suddenly gone. Beckett and Teyla helped him back to his feet. Along with everyone else, they entered the courtyard behind the wall. It was been once a beautiful garden. There was still evidence of individual arrangements and beet, but now it was all overgrown and weeds had eventually taken over. After establishing that there was no immediate threat in the courtyard, they traversed the garden and called the other scientists to follow them. Teyla, Drs. McKay and Beckett and John walked over to the building.

----------

Teyla let her hand slide over the smooth stone of the temple wall. The carvings were incredible, it mist have taken many years to decorate to wall with such finely carved symbols. She assumed that it was some sort of script but she couldn't read it. The carvings resembled the writings of the Ancients. Maybe she could take some pictures for Halling. If this was Ancient than he or the Atlantis linguists could surely deceiver it. She was about to withdraw her hand from the cool stone wall when she felt an odd sensation run though her like a wave of cold water. She must have instinctively closed her eyes, because when she opened them again, she was standing about five meters from where she had stood before. The stone wall with the carvings was no longer where it had been a second ago. In its place was now a wall with a large red crystal embedded in its middle. Suddenly, in slow motion a red beam shot out from the crystal. Her eyes followed the read beam of energy travel through the hot air. It was headed right for John, who was kneeling on the ground examining the mosaic floor of the temple.

Teyla wanted to shout, to call out to warn him, but she couldn't find her voice. She started to run towards him, but it was too late. Everything moved slowly, but the red beam hit its target with cruel precision. John's body was whipped around by the force of the blast and for a second his face was turned to hers, an expression of utter shock on his features. A moment later, he smashed down to the floor, his head impacting violently with the ground. The red pool spreading out from beneath his head made her feel sick. She wanted to move, go to him, run away, wake up from this nightmare, shut her eyes and just forget, all at the same time.

Suddenly the familiar wave washed over her again and she heard a voice saying her name. A voice she had never expected to hear again.

"Teyla, come have a look at that." John called to her. Like she had just seen, he was kneeling on the floor, brushing away sand and dust from the mosaic.

"John!" That was all Teyla managed after just having seen him die. She moved away from the wall. At that moment, the decorated panel slit down, revealing the red crystal, she had seen before. Already knowing what was about to happen, she ran with even looking at the crystal.

As soon as she was close to John, she lunged forward, using her momentum to push John out of the range of the energy beam.

Teyla hadn't taken the burns on her back into account. Pain seared through her as she had roughly pushed John out of harms away. When she had landed on the strained area, she couldn't suppress a pained scream. Her scream must have alerted Dr. Beckett who came sprinting over from the next room. Seeing John and Teyla on the floor, he feared the worst and raced over to his patients, but a microsecond before he would have reached them, he was felled by the red energy beam. Exactly like Teyla had seen it happen with John, the force of the blast smashed him into the floor. The sound of the impact of his body with the stone floor was one of the most sickening things that John had ever heard and he had seen the ugliness of wars first hand. Teyla stared at the scene, realizing that she had saved a life only to sacrifice another.

TBC


	2. Mors vita est

_**The Journey**_

_Chapter 2_

Stunned by what had just happed, everyone just stared at Beckett crumpled form lying in front of the wall he had been flung into a second ago. McKay was the first to gather his bearings and rush forwards to their fallen colleague. Before he even bent down and reached out a hand to feel the other man pulse, he knew that there would be nothing they could do. The sheer force of the impact against unyielding stone wall, followed by the sound of crushing bones had told him all he needed to know. Extending his arm to feel the other man's neck, he felt a very weak pulse that seemed to fade away beneath his touch.

"Carson, damn it, somebody help!" Rodney shouted in panic, not knowing what to do. In spite of her own reopened wounds, Teyla had come running to his side. She placed a hand on Beckett's chests which seemed very still. To her surprise, she could still feel shallow movements, but they were slow and far between. Life was draining from Dr. Beckett and they could only watch helplessly. Blood was pooling underneath his head, examining outwards in a crimson sea against the colourful mosaic floor.

"He still breathing, but I'm afraid he won't last for long." Teyla said, speaking out loud what they all knew since the moment the blast had struck the doctor.

John struggled to get back to his feet and join his friends at Beckett's side. Even though he didn't quite know what had happened yet, he knew that if Teyla hadn't thrown him to the ground he would be the one dying now. The bitter irony was that he was dying anyways. The blast would just have sped things up a bit, but if they didn't find a cure soon, he would be dead within a few days at the best.

Not being able to get to his feet, he crawled over to the wall, where Teyla and Rodney were couched on the ground, refusing to leave Beckett alone during his last moments. As he sat down on the ground next to Teyla, he heard her whisper in Ancient, probably in Athosian prayer to prepare for death. Rodney just said on Beckett's other side, his expression blank, still reeling from the shock of the sudden tragedy. John found himself equally stunned how a harmless situation had suddenly turned deadly; he just had better training to deal with it. He felt angry. Angry at the needless death, angry at the too early death of a good friend and valuable member of Atlantis, angry at himself for insisting to go to Athos and consequently setting the fatal chain of events into motion, angry that yet another live had been lost in the name of exploration, an endeavour lined with graves already.

Teyla's melodically whispering ended, and he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"There is nothing we can do. He is gone." She said softly. "We need to inform the rest of the exploration team. They will need to contact Atlantis."

John just looked at her, his mind still trying to comprehend the loss of a friend. Part of him understood how Teyla could be all business now. She had grown up with violent death as a constant threat. To survive her people had not been in the position to have the luxury to mourn their dead. They had to move. He had done the same in war. In a combat situation you had to move on or you could get your men and yourself killed. But this wasn't a combat situation. Beckett hadn't been in the military, he should never have been on the planet in the first place, especially not while they messed around with technologies that they had no clue about. John needed to know for himself and reached out for Beckett's neck. The skin under his hand was still warm, but there was no pulse, he was truly gone. Physically and mentally at the limit, John slumped against the wall and drifted into oblivion himself.

----------

Teyla had tried to radio the rest of the team, but had been unable to reach anyone outside the enclosure of the wall. Having tried McKay's radio as well, she was sure that it was not a problem with the device but that something else was going on. Only when she turned back around, she saw that John was no longer sitting upright on the ground, but had fallen asleep or worse, passed out again. Even though she still great faith that in the end, they were going to find a cure here in the city, she grew more and more worried. The prophecy had spoken of sacrifices and trials that they would have to go through on while they learned to use their gift. She had been ready to make sacrifices, but she had never expected that her friends might be the ones suffering for them.

There was nothing she could do for John at the moment, save for moving him into a more comfortable position. She told the still somewhat shocky Dr. McKay that she was going to be right back and made her way to the portal in the wall surrounding the temple and the garden. Teyla was hoping that from outside the wall, she would be able to reach the team guarding the gate. She had briefly worried that the lack of an ATA gene might be a problem, but so far, their experience had shown that the gene was generally only required to open doors from the outside, but not from the inside. The same applied to the portal, as soon as she touched the panel on the wall next to it, the portal slid open. But as she tried to walk out, she suddenly slammed into an invisible wall. Force field. Pain flared up across her face as she doubled back into the garden. She looked around, picked up a stone and flung it high into the air. As she had expected, the force field covered the temple and its garden like a dome. It protected them from attackers, but it also cut them off from Atlantis and kept them trapped. Their arrival most somehow have triggered it. The fact that the shield was active meant that there was probably a ZPM somewhere around in the city. The Atlantian scientists would be pleased.

----------

Dr. McKay was scanning was studying the energy readings his scan had recorded as the blast had been fired. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. The blast, although it had to have been very powerful to slam a human into a wall with such force had not registered on his scanner at all. He had nothing but the consistent energy reading from inside the temple. Cautiously, as he had seen its destructive power, but also highly intrigued as it seemed to violate the laws of physics as he knew them, he examined the crystal more closely, carefully standing aside in case, another blast was triggered. The crystal was an opaque red. Rodney reached out to touch it, aware that this might not be such a good idea. The moment he came into contact with the material the colour shifted from red to purple. He left his hand and after a few second, the crystal turned blue and a few meters from his position, the wall parted to reveal an entrance. Flabbergasted at what he had done, he withdrew his hand. But it did make sense, when someone without the ATA gene touched the crystal; it fired off a deadly blast, killing the person in front of it. It was coincidence that Teyla had stood on the side of the crystal. When someone with the gene touched the crystal it worked much like the doors on Atlantis. The Ancients must have been rather concerned about uninvited guests when they built this city.

----------

Carson was confused, the last thing he recalled was standing next to the temple building with Teyla John and Dr. McKay. He had been keeping an eye and the major, who had been putting an a brave front but was reaching his limit for the day. The next thing he knew he was standing in a desert in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but rocks, dust and sand as far as he could see. Not a Stargate insight. He had no clue how he could have gotten there. Transporter rings maybe. Maybe someone had accidentally activated them. Over the past three years he had learned that nothing was too improbably.

"What the hell are you doing here?" a familiar voice asked and Carson whirled around only to see a somewhat disturbed looking Major Sheppard standing there.

"Major, where are we and how did we get here?"

"That's what I wanted to know from you. I have ended up here a couple of times before after I passed out. Its apparently part of the whole prophecy deal. As far as I understand it, it's a sort of mental space where I end up when my body is in trouble." John tried to phrase it lightly. .It sounded insane to his own ears.

Beckett just nodded, caught up in thoughts of his own. John could imagine what was running through his head, Beckett wasn't stupid after all.

"I assume there was trouble on Athos? I only remember getting ready to leave."

"Yeah, there was. You got hit by an energy been. It smashed you into a wall."

From Johns tone there was no need for more questions. Beckett got what was implied.

"You are wondering why you are still here even if your body has died." The white robed guard that John had encountered on previous trips to the mental desert appeared out of thin air before them. John mentally sighed, while Beckett scowled, realizing that she had read his thoughts.

"You have a role to fulfil. Your friends believe you are dead, but they are mistaken. You did die indeed and were dead for a brief time. But you are no longer dead. You will soon return to your friends and help them on their journey. You will save your friend in time." The guard indicated John. "You are not well and without his help you will not survive until the sun rises the next time. Remember this."

"Why did he have to die? Why did you have to kill him? Just to have us watch?" John asked, his pent up frustration and anger at what he had gone though in the past few days threatening to come to the surface.

"Nothing happens without a reason and everything happens as it is written. It may just happen in unexpected ways. Your friend died because only his death would trigger what you would call a gene. You are both much closer to the Ancients that you know. There is still much about the link between the Ancients and the humans that you do not know about it. It is not yet time for you to know. But know this, in your journey you will grow closer to who you really are and you, Dr. Beckett will grow through your part in the journey. "

"I am not sure I understand what you mean. What gene will be activated?"

"You will find out in time. It is part of who you are."

Beckett disappeared from the scene at the hand wave of the guard. She now turned to John.

"All your friends will stand by you until the end and beyond. You just have to let them. The risk is theirs to take, not yours. ,"Major Sheppard.

TBC


	3. Returned from the Dead

_**The Journey**_

_**Chapter 3**_

_**A/N: I spent forever tweaking this chapter, but never managed to get it quite the way I wanted.**_

Carson Beckett had never felt this sore before in his life and he had participated in some less fair soccer matches in his youth. He was sore to the point that even breathing hurt. He couldn't move. He tried to open his eyes but he couldn't muster up the energy to do so. It was as if he was buried beneath a layer of concrete. Everything was pitch black and silent. He couldn't move and all he felt was soreness, punctuated by the occasional stabbing pain in his bones. He had no idea what had happened, the last thing he clearly recalled was getting ready for the mission to Athos, but yet for some reason he wasn't scared. He knew that he would be all right eventually. Even as he thought it, the weight that held him down lightened and he could breathe without pain. He gingerly opened his eyes. At first, all he saw was vague light and blurred shape, but after a few seconds his vision cleared up and he got a clear view of his surroundings. He was on the ground just outside of a big unfamiliar building, with elaborately decorated walls. The ground he was lying on was covered with a colourful mosaic, showing various geometric forms. Beckett frowned, trying to recall what had happened. A woman, the image of a woman clad in a white robe came to mind. A desert, he had been in a desert. John had been there as well. But whatever planet he was on now had lush green vegetation. Where was the rest of the team? John was there with him, a few meters away from him. But he was either, asleep or unconscious. Seeing John triggered his memory. Athos. The mission to Athos. They had been trying to find a cure for John. Their last chance to save his life. They had been looking for an entrance to the temple. That was the last thing he recalled.

Beckett carefully got up, but to his surprise he didn't even feel sore. The pain he had been in just minutes ago had completely disappeared. Astounded but not displeased, he went to John's side. As he had feared John wasn't doing well. He felt heat when he reached out to touch the other man's forehead. The fever which had plagued John for days had once again risen to dangerous levels. His entire body was suffering under the strain of the genetic changes that had been triggered by the experience on Arona. It was only be a matter of time before his lungs and heart gave up the fight. John had three or four hours left at best. Since they had arrived on Athos his conditions had only worsened as he had pushed himself to do far more than what was reasonable for someone in his condition. Dr. Beckett jerked back, suddenly becoming aware that he had kept contact with John's forehead for the entire time while the details about his patient's conditions just popped into his mind. He wasn't doing anything, he just knew. It was like an automatic response to his touch. A bit scared, but also intrigued, Beckett took John's hand, this time actively concentrating on the details of his condition. At first nothing happened but then, just like before, he felt the too low blood pressure and the slight dehydration caused to too little drink in the hot weather. Wishing he had brought more water with him from the jumper that was parked on top of the cliff, Beckett was about to get up when he noticed that his most recent thought had promoted a change in John. He could no longer feel any sign of dehydration. Now, realization started to dawn on him. The ancients had had the ability to heal. He had come across the report of the mission to Antarctica during his research regarding the gene therapy. He had long since hypothesized that there were several ancient genes and John had proven the point when his genetic profile had started to change, nearly killing him in the process. John might not be the only human, or rather not entirely human person to have more than one Ancient gene. Beckett took both of John's hands into his, closed his eyes and actively concentrated on him getter better. He imagined the strain on his heart and lungs diminishing and his fever going down. He didn't know what he was doing, he just did what seemed natural.

When Teyla approached the patio like structure where she had left John behind, she couldn't believe what she saw. John was lying supine on the stone floor and a man, who looked exactly like Carson Beckett was kneeling next to him. On alert, she drew her gun. This was too elaborate to be a hallucination created by the Wraith, but it had to be a trick. She had been there when Dr, Beckett had died less than an hour ago. It was impossible that he could have survived the impact with the stone wall. Before she had a chance to approach the two, John got up to his feet with the aid of Dr, Beckett. He turned around and spotted her.

"Hey Teyla, come over here. You won't believe what just happened!" John called out to her, wave with his hand. Teyla was surprised to see him standing up. He had been unconscious when she had left him and although she has tried hard not to show it, she had been very worried that it might be indeed to late for him and that they might not find a cure in time. Lowering her weapon, but still keeping it ready, she joined John and Carson near the building. She was just about to comment on the unexpected presence of Dr. Beckett, when they heard a voice from within the building.

"Guys, you have to see this. It's really…" Dr. McKay broke off as he stepped outside coming face to face with a man he had believed to be dead.

"This is not happening." He stated flatly. "You can't …you were dead." He stared at Beckett.

"Dr. Beckett has turned out to be the Healer that the prophecy has spoken of. Like the ancestors, he heals by the power of his mind." Teyla attempted to explain, but confused McKay even further.

"I thought you and John were doing that prophecy bit." McKay managed after a pause, still trying to get his mind wrapped around what he was seeing.

"We are. But you see, in for a penny, in for a pound. And , yes. Thanks, doc. It was really time." John grinned.

"Glad I could help you. Teyla, I'll have to have a look at your back later on. You're not fully healed yet and shouldn't be running around yet either." Beckett said. Finding back to his usual role as the city's doctor. He didn't quite know how to deal with the sudden attention to his person, especially since he didn't have any answers about his apparent return from the dead.

"But you were dead." McKay sounded accusatory. He still couldn't believe what had happened. He had seen quite a few things in the past three years that he wouldn't have thought possible, but nothing like this. People just didn't come back from the dead.

"Look, I can't explain it either. All I know is that I'm not dead and that somehow the Ancient's healing gene must have kicked in. That's the only explanation I can think of." Beckett was at a loss. This was all new to him as well. He wasn't even sure he grasped the entire situation yet.

"You and your genes. Isn't one of them enough?" McKay scoffed at Carson and John.

John and Carson shrugged. McKay would probably never get over the fact that he didn't have the natural version of the ATA gene. For the first time in over a week, John actually felt good.

TBC


	4. Inside

_**The Journey**_

_**Chapter 4**_

They had recalled the rest of the scientists and marines that were with them exploring and securing the area around the temple. The force field cut them off from the rest of the mission members, so they had to make due with the resources they had until a way could be found to disable the force field. While he had been inside before, Dr. McKay had, among many empty rooms, found what seemed like some sort of control centre. He hadn't had a chance to have a closer look yet. None of two marines or the two scientists who had checked out the area around the temple had found anything of interest. They had also found no sign of the tunnel that the Athosians had used to enter the Old City. Since Teyla didn't know more about the exact location, they would not be able to use it as a means of escape. The climate on Athos was warm and they had shelter within the temple, but they didn't have supplies for a long stay. They had only brought water and food for a day, assuming that they would be able to go back to the Jumper that was parked up on the cliff not far from the city.

The moment John crossed the doorstep into the control room, everything lit up. Lights switched on and the massive computer that dominated the center of the round room activated as well. McKay was instantly drawn to the machine.

"Careful McKay, don't touch anything just yet. We know that the Wraith have been here. Who knows what they have left behind." But it was too late. McKay had already touched the console in the middle of the room. As soon as he had made contact with the device, they heard a loud grinding noise from the direction of the corridor they had just come from. Whirling around they saw the stone wall closing up again. They were trapped inside the temple inside a force field now. McKay was the first to comment on their change in situation.

"It doesn't make sense. Why would the Wraith want to lock us in, the force field would hold them off, I assume."

"Maybe, the force field isn't their idea. But it doesn't matter why we are trapped; we have to find a way out of here. Let's split up and check the place out. Dr Beckett, you and McKay stay here. Try to find out what the controls are for. We can hardly make things much worse. " Sheppard finished assigning the remaining scientists and marines and three search teams and also left one armed man behind with the two doctors.

Sheppard had set off with Teyla. The temple was huge but largely empty. The walked through dozens of deserted halls and corridors. Unlike Atlantis, this place seemed to be almost void of technology. Although certainly a monument to architecture, the ground level held nothing of any strategic value. After having explored their sector, John and Teyla took what look like an Atlantis elevator to the next level. Much like the room they had found below, there was another control room. The moment Sheppard had stepped outside the elevator, the instruments came to live. To his great surprise, he suddenly knew exactly how to work them and what each of the screens displayed. Driven by his new knowledge he moved to the nearest terminal and brought up a map of the temple. Teyla was watching curiously over his shoulder.

"What are you looking for?"

"Another exit, we might need it. If McKay can't fix the door we used to get in."

The plan showed four exits in total. John committed them to memory. He was just about to bring up all the life signs in the city to make sure that they were indeed as alone as they believed, when suddenly another console beeped and a computer voice said something in Ancient. Having only a passing knowledge of Ancient at best, John looked to Teyla for a translation.

"It's a warning, that's all I can understand; the words are not familiar to me."

John went over to that console, He didn't need to understand what had been said, the display was very similar that that of a device he already knew. The device they had stolen from the Genii . What he was seeing on the screen now, was something he had hoped he'd never seen, but had known was inevitable. Three ships were coming there way and they were coming fast. He hadn't had a chance to calculate their ETA when the computer answered his thought. At their current speed, the ships would reach the planet in 10 hours and 23 minutes and they would reach Atlantis in 12 hours and 7 minutes. Something must have set them off, it couldn't be a coincidence that after three years without a direct attack by the Wraith, they decided to attack now. Teyla was thinking along similar lines.

"There is a belief among my people, that the return to the old city will bring the return of the Wraith. Maybe there is truth to it after all. Maybe our arrival somehow alerted the Wraith."

"Probably, we should have been more careful. We knew that the Wraith had been here. We have to find a way to let Atlantis know. We do monitor Wraith activity, but still, it could be hours before anyone notices that they are coming. They need every minute they have to get people out of the city.

John switched on his radio to contact McKay.

"McKay, we have a problem,"

a"I agree Major, there is no way I can open this door. There is no mechanism for it anywhere in the controls, it's just not possible. If…"

"We got bigger problems. The Wraith are coming, they are going to be here in 10 hours, and in Atlantis in 12 hours".

"How come we didn't know that. I thought the nearest ship was weeks away"

"I have no idea. Something we did here must have tipped them off." John snapped. He was not in the mood for technicalities. He didn't care about the how..

"We'll all meet you down in the control room. Sheppard out." Then he proceeded to radio the other two teams..

"Teams 2 and 3, please come in."

"This is team 3,l " came Dr. Devon's voice over the radio

"Go back to the control room. We'll meet you there."

"Understood."

"Team 2, please respond! Sergeant Eland?" John tried to raise the team over the radio again, but received no response. The feeling that something was very wrong got a lot stronger, there wasn't just a Wraith attack looming over their heads. Their troubles were far closer to home. He returned back to the console he had been working on before the alarm had distracted him. He saw his instincts confirmed. The Wraith attack was not their only problem. They were not alone in the temple. There were nine red dots blinking at him from the screen. Nine where there should have been only eight of them.

TBC


	5. Company

_**The Journey**_

_**Chapter 5**_

A/N: Sorry about the long delay between updates, but no matter how long it takes me to get all of this fic up, eventually I'll get all four stories in the series posted. It's just University work that is keeping me very busy (along with another WIP). Even in Oxford the days only have 24 hours. Thank you for your patience.

-

John pulled up his P90, cursing not having a portable life sign detector with him. He was sure that someone had brought the device with them, but he had been in no shape to pack his gear for the mission. He and Teyla carefully made their way out of the upper control room. They swiftly moved through the corridors not encountering anyone, as expected. But better safe than sorry, it would not be the first time that the life signs detector lulled them into a false sense of security, making them believe that they were indeed alone. It was unlikely that they were going to encounter the Wraith inside a temple that had been sealed for possible thousands of years, but as they had learned years ago, the Wraith were capable of surviving for millennia on very little food. There was always the possibility that their arrival had not only triggered the signal alerting the nearest hive ship, but had also awakened any hibernating Wraith within the temple.

They had barely arrived on the lower level, when John started to get the feeling that they were not alone. He was literally sensing another presence in his mind. It was not clear enough to make out distinct emotions, let alone thoughts, all he could really sense was an alien, cold presence somewhere in the dark hallways ahead of them. He turned to Teyla, who just nodded, confirming that she was feeling the same thing. He hadn't needed to ask the question, Teyla sensed it on his mind, the shot that Dr. Beckett had given them to suppress the telepathic abilities was wearing off. John recalled the doctor telling them that one of the shortcoming of the experimental drug were that a shot only worked for about six hours. Soon the intense headaches would invariable return until he could get another dose. But for the moment, he valued his ability. It didn't quite make up for a life sign detector, but at least it confirmed that they were headed in the right direction. Silently, weapons ready, they proceeded down the hallways, following the direction where the presence seemed to come from. They had just turned a corner when suddenly the corridor closed behind them. John spun around just in time to see solid stone cut off their way back. He looked at Teyla.

"We must be getting close. " she whispered. "But there is probably another way out."

"If not, Rodney can probably unlock the corridor from the control console." John said. "Come, we can worry about this later, we have to find the others. If we're dealing with a Wraith who hasn't eaten in a few hundred years, we are in serious trouble."

They were about to proceed, but didn't get very far. After less than two steps, another door closed right in front of them, imprisoning them in a tiny section of corridor, barely two steps wide.

-

Beckett sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. He was exhausted. Physically, he was fine, better than fine, especially for someone, who had been slammed into a stone wall and cracked his head open a few hours ago. Dying had taken far less out of him than he would have expected. It was his mind that had some trouble catching up. From the beginning he had had some trouble wrapping his head around the concept of this Athosian prophecy. As the events had started to fall into place and confirm the prophecy, he had started to accept it, but still hadn't believed any of it. And now he had become a part of it. The genetics of the Ancients and the way they were linked to some humans were still not very well understood. He had studied the Ancient genes for over three years and still was in the dark about how most of it work. He had figured out how the ATA gene worked, but that was about it. He knew little else about other Ancient genes, which both Major Sheppard and he himself apparently possessed. Were they more human or more Ancient now? They had both abilities that no normal human possessed, abilities that the Ancients or at least some Ancients had possessed. He ran a hand over his face. He'd never practice medicine the same way again once he learned to control the healing gene.

"I got it!" McKay yelled, distracting Carson from his ponderings. He got up and joined McKay at the massive console in the middle of the room.

"I found it. This is the control system for all the entrances of the temple. It's like a security system. It even has a lockdown mode. For some reason, that lockdown mode has been engaged. Something must have triggered it."

"So we are locked in."

"Yes, but I think, I know how to override the lockdown mode. But I need John to do it. It's gene specific and it won't work for me." Rodney didn't sound pleased.

Suddenly the console started to beep and lights started blinking.

"What the hell…" McKay started punching key, but to no avail, the console went dark.

"I'm no computer scientist, but did the Ancient supercomputer just crash?" Beckett asked.

"No, it didn't crash. Ancient supercomputers don't crash. Someone kicked me out of the system." McKay kept punching keys as he spoke and the screen flickered back to life after a few seconds. "There is someone else logged into the system. Someone who actually has access codes, I just came in through the back door. But now, they closed the back door."

"Maybe this would be a good time to contact Major Sheppard." Beckett suggested, trying not to sound as freaked out as he was. He wished he had stayed in the city.

For once McKay didn't argue with him, but grabbed his radio and switched it on.

"Major Sheppard, this is McKay, please come in."

He met was static. Just when he thought, he was not going to get a reply, he heard Sheppard's voice over the radio. He sounded breathless, as if speaking was on effort.

"McKay, get out of there. There is something…here. Teyla and I …trapped … air is getting thin."

-

John was crouched on the stone floor of the corridor. It was impossible to sit properly between the narrow walls, but it was the best he could do. He forced himself to take slow, clam breath as not to waste valuable oxygen, as he listened to McKay on the radio.

"I know that we aren't alone. Someone kicked me out of the computer, I can't access the control system. Where are you?" McKay reacted to the dire situation with his usual verbosity.

"Scan for life signs." John gasped, as his body screamed for oxygen. It was becoming more difficult to focus on his conversation with McKay. He glanced at Teyla, she was looking at him, a strained smile on her face. At least they were together. He was holding her hand. Even as he refused to give in to their fate.

"Hell, just try something!" his voice was weak, but the desperation rang through. John gasped from the effort, unable to get enough oxygen into his lungs. His vision started to grey and he let his head sink down to his knees and gave Teyla's hand a last squeeze, letting the gesture express the words he didn't have the strength to speak.

TBC

A/N: The next update is already written, so it'll be up soon.


	6. First Contact

_**The Journey **_

Chapter 6

_**-**_

"Do something!" Beckett yelled at McKay, having heard every word of their exchange on the radio.

"What do you think I'm trying to do? There is simply no way. I'm locked out of the system." He pointed at the dark console. McKay was ready to give up. All he could think of was how he had failed his teammate. But Beckett wouldn't let him give up so easily.

"You always find a way, there has to be some kind of emergency shut down or something. All the Ancient technology we have seen before had some kind of failsafe to prevent people from being killed."

"That only works for people with the gene." McKay snapped, not realizing what he had just said.

"Of course, John has the gene and so do you. Get on the computer." McKay shoved Beckett towards the console. As soon as he touched the console, it lit up again, and a map with life signs appeared. Two small life signs were gathered in a very small while a stronger life sign was headed towards their present location. Four life signs were missing. Beckett panicked, suddenly, they had not only their suffocating friends to deal with, but also someone, most likely someone who had killed four of their team already advancing towards them.

"Get that wall up again!" McKay yelled at him, while unholstering his gun. He too had seen the life sign advancing towards their position, coming closer at an alarming pace. Trying to focus, Beckett tried to think about the locking mechanism, thinking about releasing the doors. The screen in front of him rapidly flicked through a row of schematics before coming to a diagramme of the locking mechanism. Not knowing which of the crystals that controlled the locking mechanism to disable, Beckett simple took the central one off-line, disable all locks in the temple. This was the only way he could be sure that the doors that had trapped John and Teyla would be opened. On the downside, they would not be able to lock off the control room to protect themselves from whatever was with them inside the temple.

Suddenly, Beckett heard gunshots from the corridor leading away from the control room. He spun around, surprised to find himself alone in the room. McKay must have gone ahead to confront the intruder. An utterly foolish idea, but Beckett wouldn't put it past McKay to try and play the hero. He considered running off in the opposite direction, in case that Rodney was unsuccessful in holding off their attacker, but he decided otherwise. Rodney might be in need of his newly acquired healing skills, he couldn't leave him behind like that. Wishing for a weapon, he listened to the gunfire and the screams outside, hoping that Rodney hadn't made a fatal decision when he had decided to confront the enemy.

-

It felt good to be able to stretch his legs again, John thought dreamily. He must have fallen sleep in one hell of an uncomfortable position. His muscles hurt like after a hard day off-world as he stretch and expanded his curled up body until he was lying flat on the floor. He was just about to drift off again, when it struck him that his bed was oddly hard, in fact it felt a lot like solid rock. He opened his eyes and saw a dimly lit stone ceiling. The memories were flooding back to him now. They had been trapped in the corridor; oxygen had been running out fast. His recall was a bit hazy, but the last thing he remembered was talking on the radio with McKay, before passing out. He didn't think he and Teyla were going to make it out of this one. Teyla! Before he could move to check on her, his mind automatically reached out to her, reassuring him that she was near and alive. Turning his head, he saw her scrunched up form right next to him. She was just starting to stir awake. He leaned over, gently shaking her shoulder, trying to rouse her. They had to act quickly before whoever had been trying to kill them realized that they had escaped. At least that was what John thought must have happened. McKay must have come through for them at the last second.

"John?" Teyla muttered, slowly becoming more awake. "John, are you all right?" Teyla still seemed not totally aware of her surroundings

"I'm fine. I was worried about you. Can you sit up?" John was concerned

"Yes, I think so." She pushed herself up and shifted her gaze to John. "What happened?"

"McKay must have managed to open the doors remotely. We have to get going as soon as you feel better. Someone is out here with us; we have to get to it before it gets to any of us. It already tried to kill the two of us. It's not going to stop there."

"I'm ready." Teyla said and John helped her back to her feet. Once she was standing steadily, they resumed their previous way downwards to corridor to the room in which they had spotted the additional life sign when they had been in the upper control room.

-

Just when Beckett thought that McKay should have run out of bullets, he heard one last gunshot, followed by a mangled scream. Some shuffling sounds flooded in from the corridor and then a single set of footsteps approached. Before Beckett could contemplate the best place to hide in the room, it entered the room. He started at it in mixture of terror and shock. At the first second he had thought it was a Wraith that had just walked into the control room with Rodney slung over his shoulder. But even though the creature bore a strong resemblance to the Wraith, it was clearly something far less humanoid. It reminded him more of some reptilian, lizard like creature. But before Carson had more time to contemplate the finer points of the creature's appearance, it dumped Rodney right in front of him. Rodney was bleeding from his arm, from what looked like a gunshot wound. His eyes were opened, but his wasn't moving. He just started up at Carson with a horrified gaze. Carson was about to kneel down to have a closer look at his friend, when the creature roughly grabbed him by the arm, it's sharp, claw-like nails ripping through the fabric of his uniform and breaking his skin. The creature tightened the grip, obviously waiting for something to happened.

"You are not like him. You are one of them. I don't need to kill you, you're already paying the price for the mistake you made." The creature sneered and let out something that vaguely resembled a laugh. "I'll not kill you, you'll be much more useful to me alive." The creature smacked Beckett to the side of the head and he went down to the floor.

McKay was watching in horror. There was nothing he could do. He had tried to stop the would-be Wraith, but his Beretta had been useless. The creature had easily wrestled the weapon from his hand, and probably broken his wrist in the process, and then proceeded to shot him with his own gun. Why it had gone for a shot to the arm and not a more lethal region, he had no idea. Then it had gripped him by the arm. Somehow, those claws must contain a poison, because immediately after the creature had released his arm, paralysis had set in. He had been watching helplessly how the creature had knocked out Beckett.

-

John carefully spied around the corner as he and Teyla reached their destination. Neither of them sensed anyone present, but he didn't dare to entirely rely on his new abilities yet. He was too used to standard military strategy to suddenly change his operating mode completely.

He could see two figures lying motionless on the floor in the dark room. That was all he could detected with the light of his P90. He signaled Teyla that they were ready to enter the room. They cautiously entered the dark room.

_TBC_


	7. Hostages Part 1

_**The Journey**_

_**Chapter 7**_

A/N: This story is part of four stories which I mapped out after having seen the first ten episodes of SGA. The story contradicts several things we learn in later episodes, so you can consider it AU after _The Eye_. This chapter has slight spoilers for _38 Minutes._

* * *

Dr. Weir was pacing in her office. She knew that something like this was going to happen. It hadn't just been a bad feeling, no; she had downright known that it would happen. Or maybe she had been around Teyla and her prophecies too long. The exploration team on Athos had missed its last two schedules contacts with the security back-up team on the planet. The back-up team which had secured the location and the gate had reported no trouble, but could offer no explanation why the exploration team was not responding to any communication attempts. A preliminary search of the city had revealed nothing, the best guess was that the team was somewhere within a huge temple structure which was protected by a force field. That was the last she had heard from the surface. The next contact was scheduled in three hours. Dr. Weir was just about to resume another round of pacing when there was a knock on her door.

"Come in!"

It was Dr. Grodin. "Dr. Weir, Dr. Zelenka needs to see you in the lab. He says the Wraith are coming."

Both of them hurried down to the lab, where Dr. Zelenka was already waiting for them, pacing nervously.

"What do you have for us?"

"I was working with the scanner from the Genii, trying to hook it up to our sensor to enhance the range and get a more precise reading. I finally got it to work, and this is what I found." He pointed to the screen of his laptop. "Four ships are headed towards Atlantis. Preliminary ETA is 10 hours 23 minutes, but the computer is working on a more exact estimate right now."

"Good work, stay on it. Peter, get in contact with our people on Athos, tell them to get back, their mission is over. Recall all other off-world teams."

Atlantis erupted in a frenzy of activity as evacuation of the city began and military and science personnel got together to work out strategies, one seeming as futile as the next.

* * *

John swept the room with the light of his weapon. As he and Teyla had sensed there were no hostiles present, but the ray of light revealed two bodies slumped on the floor. Once reassured that the room was safe, Teyla turned on the flashlight, illuminating most of the small, empty room. In the far corner was the body of Dr. Devon, the anthropologist who has joined them on this mission. It was impossible to tell whether the scientist was merely unconscious or dead. The second body was far more worrisome. They could only guess that the desiccated remains of what used to be a human body belonged to Lieutenant Young, who had been paired up with Dr. Devon to search the temple. They had seen bodies like this before. Bodies of people the Wraith had fed upon. John turned to the doorway to make sure they weren't about to get company while Teyla checked out Dr. Devon.

"She is still, alive, but just barely. It is like she is in some state of hibernation." Teyla stated. "I cannot wake her. If there are indeed Wraith here, it is very unusual that they haven't fed upon her as well. Their hunger has no limits, they will feed upon everything that is available, they leave no survivors. At the moment I cannot sense any Wraith in the area. "

"Do you know of anything else that could have done something like this? I mean if it's not typical for the Wraith, maybe it wasn't the Wraith. It doesn't make sense for the Wraith to be here already. We only triggered the sensor less than two hours ago, it will take them another eight hours to arrive here by ship. Also, how far can you sense the Wraith anyways?"

"You are correct, if they were somewhere in this level of the temple, I would be able to sense them, as would probably you. Their thought pattern differs greatly from that of humans and the drug that Dr. Beckett gave us has worn off by now. It could be that Lieutenant Young was killed by one of the Wraith tics that attacked you three years ago short after you came to Atlantis." Teyla theorized.

"Lovely idea. We have to warn the others, whatever threat is out there, it could have already gotten to them. We are not going to find out anything more while we are here in this room. We need to get to the nearest computer panel, or better yet, the control room. From there we can access the sensors and track it. We know it shows up on the sensors." John set up their plan of action.

"I agree. But we cannot leave Dr. Devon behind." Teyla remarked.

John handed Teyla his weapon and shouldered Dr, Devon. Slowly with Teyla leading on, they made their way out the small chamber, following the corridor they had come from. Luckily Teyla could rely on her mind to inform her in advance of the presence of others, so the darkness of the temple was only minor problem. As they had planned, they made their way to the control room to warn Rodney and Carson about the danger. Half-way there, Teyla stopped, having picked up a presence. It wasn't a human mind, nor of any other species that she could recognise. It was less refined in its thought patterns. It was intelligent all right, but the emotions were wild and raw and it was driven by more instinct instead of than reason. The presence was approaching them fast. She signalled John to retreat.

* * *

Rodney had watched in horror how Beckett had crashed to the floor after the hit to his head. He could only hope that the healing gene kicked in as before, fixing any injury caused by the blow. When he thought about it, that healing gene could be seriously useful on missions. McKay was soon brought back to the stark reality of his situation when the creature let out another distorted laugh. It came over and bent down to Rodney's eyelevel. If possible at all, Rodney would have shrunken back, but he couldn't move a muscle below his neck, so he just closed his eyes, waiting for something terrible to happen.

"I see they are coming for you, too. You can thank your Ancient friends for that." The creature said tauntingly and then Rodney felt something akin to four razor blades being dragged across his left cheek, warm wetness immediately following. When he dared to open his eyes again, he saw the creature's retreating back, leaving the control room. Rodney could feel panic well up inside of him. Not being able to move didn't help exactly. He knew what was coming, he tried to calm himself down, but his mind was racing and soon he was gasping for air in full fledged panic attack.

* * *

There was no way they could outrun their pursuer, not with a deadweight slowing them down in unfamiliar territory. The footsteps were now audible coming closer as they were still trying to flee. They rounded a corner, now totally lost in the maze of the temple when their pursuer caught up with them. Teyla immediately opened fire, but with little effect. Like the Wraith, this creature, which bore a vague similarity to the Wraith was only slowed down by the hail of bullets. In second it jumped on top of Teyla, wrestling her to the ground and getting a hold of the P90 with brute strength. Having seen that display of force convinced John that he could neither win with fire power nor in hand to hand combat. For a second he was torn between concern for Teyla who was motionless on the ground and escaping while their attacker was still occupied with Teyla. While he was torn between fight and flight, he could feel the presence of mind of the creature more strongly then before. He didn't consciously know what he was doing, but he sent a wave of pain towards his attacker. He hardly knew what he had done, when the creature howled in pain, distracted for a moment, giving him the perfect opportunity to get a head start in his escape.

He was considerably slowed down by the weight of the lifeless Dr. Devon, but for the moment, he had no choice but to lug the scientist with him. He could hear gunshots echo behind him and was glad he had run the moment he did. He didn't want to get shot with a P90 to top his day. It had been exciting enough. Once the gunshots had stopped and his body was begging him to slow down and his lungs were begging for oxygen, he carefully set down his burden and slid down the wall, gasping for air, his muscles trembling slightly from exhaustion. He had been in better shape, but after having spent the previous week in the infirmary, he wasn't used to that much anymore. Beckett would be having a fit if he could see him now. He had to figure out a plan to get the others out. He had to assume that whatever this thing was that had attacked Teyla and him, was the same thing that had killed Lieutenant Young and had attacked Dr. Devon. Whatever it was, it was somehow related to the Wraith. Exactly how many relatives did they have? First the tics and now the Neanderthal version?

Feeling somewhat rested, Sheppard resumed his trek through the corridors of the temple. His plan was to get back to the control room of the upper level. Finally, he found a control panel in one of the corridors. He quickly managed to bring up a map which showed him the nearest way up to the next level. Once up there, he carefully sat down Dr. Devon, glad to finally have gotten the weight of his aching back. He had no time to lose, so he turned immediately to the computer console, bringing back the map with the life signs. He zoomed in on the lower control room where two life signs were almost on top of each other, with two very faint life signs along the walls of the room. The two faints signs were probably Rodney and Teyla. Whatever poison the creature used dampened people's life signs. The two strong signals probably belonged to Beckett and the creature. This was bad. The creature could kill Beckett at any moment and there was nothing he could do from where he was. Maybe there was something he could do, if he hurried up. A vague plan formed in his mind. It was risky and even on a good day, it was not a good plan, but it was the only plan he had.

* * *

"Shh, Rodney, calm down." Beckett whispered, hoping that he was getting through to the panicking man. He wasn't sure whether he could affect mental states or poisonings, but he put a hand on Rodney's shoulder. It seemed like the right thing to do, even if Rodney wouldn't be able to feel his touch.

"We are going to get out of here. The major will come up with something." Beckett said, tring to reassure not just Rodney, but also himself. He wasn't sure whether he was imagining it or not, but Rodney's breathing seemed to slow down slightly. His eyes which had been darting around fearfully, fixated on Beckett.

"I woke up a bit ago. It wasn't a bad hit." Beckett answered the unspoken question. Only when he had said it, it occurred to him, that the hit had probably been violent enough to given him a hefty concussion, his body had just recovered quickly. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Sort of, I still can't move, but I got some feeling back." Rodney replied, definitely calmer now. "I think you're doing that, because I can fell your hand on my shoulder and some around that." Rodney's scientific curiosity was back in spite of the circumstances.

Carson was just about the answer, when the heard the creature return, this time with Teyla slung over his shoulder and a P90 in its hand. It deposited Teyla next to McKay, obviously not caring that Beckett was already awake again after the punch to the head and could have walked away if he had wanted to. The creature ignored its prisoners and returned to the computer, switching through the projections like Beckett had done before. McKay watched, puzzled by what he saw. To operate the projections like this, the user needed to have the gene, his artificial gene hadn't been enough once he had been locked out of the system. But the creature seemed to posses the natural gene like Beckett and Sheppard did, yet it was more Wraith like in behaviour and appearance. The creature growled in dissatisfaction, pounding the console.

"Where is the ship?" It turned to its prisoners. "Tell me or I shall have him next." It yanked Beckett to his feet and pulled him close.

"You mean …you mean our ship, it's on top of the cliff." McKay stammered, surprised by the creature's interest in the Puddle Jumper.

"Not your puny ship, the ship of the Ancients. You can't fool me; I know it's hidden in this temple. Now tell me where it is, or I will feed on him. Don't think I will spare you. After I had my fill of him, I will kill you."

TBC


	8. Hostages Part 2

_**The Journey**_

_**Chapter 8**_

John raced along the corridors, trying to find the shortest route to the lower control room. He could only hope that he would get there in time, before the creature could harm Beckett. If he was right than there was only one way they could defeat the creature. Their weapons were useless but there was one weapon the Wraith and this creature would be defenseless against. At least that was what he had gathered from the prophecy and his earlier encounter with the creature. John rounded the last corner and stepped in the control room. To his relief, his was still in time. The tall creature had a terrified looking Beckett in a choke-hold. Obviously it hadn't detected him yet. For now, he kept in the entrance way, the darkness shielding him from immediate detection. The creature's raw and intense emotions easily projected over the distance. It wouldn't hesitate to kill Beckett; its only goal was the ship a ship that the Ancients had hidden within the temple structure. They were just a means to an end. Negotiations were going to be pointless. The only change he had to set his plan into motion was to provoke the creature into attacking him. He took a deep breath and ran into the room.

"You are wasting your time, the ship is long gone. You will never get off this planet!" He taunted the creature. For a second, the creature stared at him, along with everyone else in the room. John was well aware that his teammates had to be thinking that he must have finally lost it.

"Liar!" the creature roared in indignation and lunged towards John, tackling him to the ground. At the same time, it relinquished its hold on Beckett, who immediately backed off towards the wall with the others as the creature was blocking the exit.

As fast as he had been violently tackled to the ground, he was yanked to his feet.

"You are lying. Tell me where the ship is and I will spare you."

"I will tell you nothing." Sheppard said coolly, knowing what was coming. He could sense that the creature's anger and hunger were about the override any sense of strategy. Before he could see another word, incredible pain erupted in his chest. Normally, the sensation would have brought him to his knees, but the creature held him upright, as it kept its hand pressed to his chest, starting to feed of him. John tried to remain as calm as possible, but the pain was so intense he couldn't help but scream. The initial shock faded a second later and he invested all his energy and projecting the pain into his thoughts, seeking out the creatures easily accessible mind. The outside world vanished has he entered a mind filled with hunger, violence and need. He was overwhelmed with memories of the past, memories of places he had never been it, memories of people the creature had killed, unerringly he pushed forward, projecting all his pain at the creature.

The creature was stronger than he had anticipated. It wavered a few times, but it never let up. John could feel his mind weaken, wondering how much energy he had already lost, as information threatened to overwhelm him.

Everything threatened to turn black, John felt like he was falling very fast, the colours rushing past him, everything blurring together, voices turning into a cacophony of painful sounds. John was losing the hold on his mind and knew it. He was going down along with the creature and he knew it. He had been aware of the risk. If that was what it took to safe his friends and he would do it. He had come to this planet knowing that he might not come back. As he was falling, he felt a familiar presence for a second, like a sudden flash in his mind. Someone was reaching out to him. He tried to find the presence again, but the downward pull of the abyss was too great. There it was again, another flash, then another. It was Teyla; she was trying to reach him, trying to help him find his way hope. With all his strength he concentrated on her, on trying to find her amidst the chaos.

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity, the creature let out a piercing howl and let go of John as it collapsed to the ground. John staggered for a second before also collapsing. For a moment, they all stared at the scene in front of them, then Beckett hurried towards the creature, quickly binding tying it up with the plastic restraints that they carried in their bags. He had no idea whether the material was strong enough to withstand the creature's strength, but it was all they had at the moment. Once assured that the creature was out of action at least for the time being, he went to check on John. He was relieved that his pulse was still strong, despite the other man's ragged appearance. John's face was pale and blood soaked the front of his shirt where the creature had touched him to try to feed upon his energy. Beckett was just about the push up John's shirt when John started to stir.

"Owww," he groaned, raising one hand to his head. "Did it work?" John started to sit up, but Beckett stopped him.

"Stay down; you are still bleeding from where it touched you. Whatever you were trying to do must have worked; the creature is out at the moment. It didn't succeed in feeding off you." Beckett explained having a closer look at the vaguely hand shaped injury to the major's chest. As he touched his patient and focused his mind, the laceration slowly started to mend. It still took a lot of effort, but he already noticed that his ability to heal was not random but he was starting to gain conscious control over it.

John relaxed as he felt the pain in his chest and head steadily diminish. He felt exhausted, his plan had worked out, but the creature had been far stronger than he had anticipated and he had had to enter far deeper into its mind than he had ever wanted to. Had it not been for Teyla, he doubted that he would have found his way out again. But he now understood what Teyla had meant when she had told him that everything happened for a reason, when he had been about to let the creature feed upon him. Had he not done so, he would never have learned about the history between the Ancients and the Wraith, nor why the Wraith feared and hunted telepaths. The Aronans, an alien race they had encountered less than two weeks ago had never heard of the Wraith. It had been a complete mystery to them. Now he understood. There were telepaths on Arona and the Aronan military was not above using telepaths to their strategic advantage. It all fit together. Now, they had to find the ship that was hidden in the temple. The Wraith were coming and Atlantis was going to need them. He needed to tell the others what he had learned. They needed to know, Atlantis needed to know. John wanted to get up but before he could even try, he fell into an exhausted sleep.

Teyla watched with concern as Dr. Beckett stepped away from John and he was still lying on the ground, unmoving.

"Dr. Beckett, how is John? Can you not heal him?"

"He will be fine, as far as I can tell. He is exhausted; the creature did suck some of his energy out of him. Not much, but he did lose a couple of days probably. I have no idea what else he did to the creature. I'm sorry I can't tell you more. I haven't found any other I injuries."

"Thank you doctor," Teyla longed to be closer to John, but the paralysis caused by the creature's poison was slow to wear off, even with Beckett's help. She had some feeling back in her arms and hands, but her legs still refused to comply with the orders of her brain. Still she wanted to be close to John to make sure herself that he was indeed going to be already. She had seen too many people dear to here die at the hand of the Wraith. Seeing John being attacked by this Wraith-like creature had brought her back to the night many summers ago when she had woken up to find a Wraith hovering over her father. She had run and never looked back. But this time, it was going to be different; John was not going to die. The Prophecy had told of tests they would have to brave on Athos, this had been one of them.

_TBC_


	9. The Ship

_**The Journey**_

_**Chapter 9**_

"Peter, what's our status?" Dr. Weir enquired.

"We are almost done evacuating all non-essential personnel to the emergency sites. We should be ready to start moving additional resources through the gate within an hour. Persuading the Athosians to leave their community on the mainland is a bit more difficult, Dr. Snoek is still on the mainland talking to them."

"We can't waste to much them on that. We can offer to help them to relocate for the time being, but if they refuse, there is nothing we can do. Recall Dr. Snoek, we need all the Jumpers we have here. We only have just under five hours left before the Wraith get here, maybe even less than that. What about the off-world teams, any news?

"No, still no contact with Bates' team or with the exploration team on Athos."

"We need everyone we can get. Once the Wraith attack, they can't come back anymore. Recall the security team from Athos. Major Sheppard and the others will make it back on their own. Anything on the MALP data from PX-860?" Dr. Weir asked about the planet Sergeant Bates and his team had been sent to in desperate search of an energy source to power Atlantis' defenses.

"The MALP was destroyed by enemy fire." Dr. Grodin replied in a somber voice.

"We don't have the time or the resources to send out a rescue team. Sergeant Bates and all of his team knew that they were on their own when they stepped through the gate. We'll try to keep the Gate operational for as long as possible before disabling the dialing the dialing system. Unfortunately there is no way of letting Major Sheppard and his team know what is going on here. We are going to give them as much time as we can, but that is all I can do for them."

* * *

The next four hours passed slowly. Everyone was exhausted. Teyla and Rodney were still fighting the effects of the paralyzing poison that the creature had used on them. Beckett's healing touch helped speed up recovery, but it still took hours for mobility to return. Beckett himself was exhausted. It had been an eventful day and it seemed that healing other people using the gene seemed to be physically quite demanding. Once he was assured that all of his team mates were going to be all right for the time being, he fell asleep as well.

As soon as Rodney, who had been the first to be exposed to the poised, managed to get up on his own, he made his way to the computer. He recalled clearly that the creature had been searching for a ship that was supposedly been hidden in this temple. If it had been right, it would be an amazing find that could be very useful to them, especially considering that the Wraith were about the attack Atlantis in about five hours. Gripping the edge of the console hard to steady himself he focused on the computer, willing it to show the layout of the temple along with all present energy signatures. It took him a few tries, but eventually he got the map of what he had been thinking of. As expected, there were plenty of energy signatures: various computer panels, the force field that covered the entire temple and then a cluster of energy signatures, some of them quite intense, others hardly readable at all in the lowest level of the temple, right at the centre of the structure. Rodney had no idea what those could be. They could belong to just another control room, but so far the Ancients had been consistent in their architectures, the control rooms on each level had been on top of each other, always in the left wing of the building. Each level was identical to the others, except for the lowest level, which was architecturally the same, but had different energy signatures.

John woke to a splitting headache. When he forced his eyes open, he saw Teyla and Beckett hovering over him.

"How are you feeling, major?"

"Like something exploded inside my head."

"I've given you a blocking shot just now. Your head should be feeling better any time. Teyla told me what you did. I'm no expert on telepathy, but I don't think you should take those kind of risks. At least not until you are more experienced in dealing with your abilities."

"There aren't exactly many people to learn from around." John answered wryly and propped himself up on his elbows. His head was already feeling better. As much as he disliked the telepathy blocking shots that the Aronans had developed, they were very effective against the violent headaches his abilities often caused him.

"Are you all right?" he asked Teyla, who was sitting on his side.

"Yes, I'll be fine. The poison will wear off fully soon." She squeezed John's hand.

"What's been going on while I was out?"

"Not much. Everyone is tired. Dr. McKay is trying to find the ship that the creature has been trying to find, he believes that it really is somewhere in the temple."

"Not just he believes that it is somewhere in the temple. It is in the temple and I actually think that I found it." McKay entered the conversation. "All I have to do is go down there and check it out myself. You'll see that I'm right." McKay grinned self-satisfied.

"Okay, I'm coming with you." John groaned as he slowly got up from his position on the floor. "Teyla and Beckett, you stay here and keep on eye on our friend. I don't think it will pose any danger since it's gone back to hibernating, but you never know. Rodney and I are going to check out the alleged ship." John grabbed someone's P90 off the floor and started to follow Rodney out the door, when Dr. Beckett called after them.

"Wait, do you think that is such a good idea, what if another one of those creatures turns up here." Beckett sounded mildly panicked. Sheppard turned back. "There is only this one. It is the last one. We are alone here now." He stated simply. "We'll be back as soon as we can."

John and Rodney took the quickest path to the lowest level. At first glance it looked just like the others levels did. The same maze of corridors, the same control room in the left wing, the same musty air left undisturbed for millennia. It was probably just John's imagination, but as they were nearing the central room, he could swear that the darkness was getting thicker and the air was getting hotter. Finally they reached their destination. Instead of a huge empty hall, a metal bulkhead blocked their way less than three meters into the room. The bulkheads surface was smooth safe for what looked like a hatch with a panel next to it. Given their previous experience with Ancient technology, John reached out and touched the panel. As expected it came to light, and started to display information in Ancient characters. John couldn't read the Ancient's language, so he turned to Rodney, whose face seemed almost white in the darkness.

"Oh no!" Rodney said faintly, staring that the glowing characters on the panel..

"What is it?" John was becoming concerned.

"By touching that panel there you just triggered a self-destruct mechanism. If I'm right the entire temple is going to be destroyed in fifteen minutes."

TBC


	10. Countdown

_**The Journey**_

_**Chapter 10**_

"We have to get out of here. If we don't get this ship up and running in the next thirteen minutes tons of stones are going to come right down on our heads. We are going to be crushed like a bunch of insects. I never should have agreed to come along on this ridiculous mission. If only I had been listening to my brain, any rational person would have this prophecy as utter lunacy…" McKay rambled in panic.

"Shut up and help me find a way to get this hatch open. We can do, there is enough time to get this ship working. The Ancients built stuff to last." John interrupted him harshly while examine the surface of the metal bulkhead for any other panels.

Rodney seized his tirade, but made no move to help John in his search. John grabbed him by the arm and pushed him towards the panel displaying the countdown. "Check out what all the buttons on it do, you're the expert. I'm going to go up to the control room to inform the other and see if there is a remote way of accessing the ship. We are getting out of this." John patted Rodney on the shoulder and jogged out of the room. Upstairs, everything was pretty much as he had left it. Beckett was still working on the computer, but had found nothing helpful so far. Teyla was finally back on her feet and was busy gathering their scattered weapons.

Both looked up from their tasks when John entered.

"We have a problem. We found the ship, but when I tried to open the hatch to take a look at it, I accidentally triggered some sort of self-distract sequence. Bottom line is that the entire temple is going to come down on us in a bit over ten minutes."

"Another Wraith booby trap?" Teyla asked.

"I don't think so. They would have rather taken the ship for themselves. The ship was probably the last route of escape for the Ancients. The self-destruct might have been put in place to make sure that the Wraith wouldn't find anything of use should the city fall into their hands. We need to get everyone down to the lowest level. Rodney is working on getting the ship working. If we make it, it's going to be a close one."

"What about you, Major?" Beckett asked when John didn't show any intention of moving himself. Instead, he went to work at the computer console.

"I'm trying to give McKay a hand from up here. He's going to need all the help he can get. You two get going, I'll meet you down at the ship. Hurry up, you only have six minutes left."

"So have you John." Teyla reminded him sternly. "We won't allow you to sacrifice yourself for us. It's not your time."

"Just give me a few more minutes. I promise I will join you at the ship." John said while rapidly working on the computer.

"Now!" Teyla and Beckett shouted, grabbing John by the arms, pulling him away from the console. He resisted for a moment, then gave in and joined them in a frantic dash to the lower level. They arrived there, panting, just in time, to see the hatch open with two minutes left on the countdown. As soon as John and Beckett entered the dormant ship woke up and came to life for them. As soon as John thought about taking off, the ship responded with an intense vibration that nearly knocked everyone to the ground. The hatched closed. The vibration increased and there was a loud, discordant grinding noise coming from outside. Suddenly, John could feel the ship lifting from the ground. The internal dampening made it impossible to tell how fast they were ascending, but it couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds before the ship crashed into something solid and the jolt rocked the ship.

"The force field!" Rodney cried. "It's still up. We've flown straight into the force field."

John sighed. He hadn't thought of that. They were going to die after all.

"But it's not that bad," Rodney went on. When the temple explodes, the force field generators will fail and the force field will drop."

"Which will get us nowhere because we'll be caught in the blast and blow up as well." John wasn't in the mind for mind games.

"Not if we time it right. We have to pick the right moment and fly fast enough to avoid being in the blast radius. It should work theoretically, if this thing goes fast enough…"

That was as far as Rodney got before a massive shockwave from the explosion of the temple below approached the ship at alarming speed. John had just time to spot on the scanner. He set the ship to full speed the second the shock wave was about the hit the ship.

TBC

_A/N: Short chapter, I know, but it was the last of the action heavy chapters. The story is nearing its end, the next chapter starts putting the pieces together. The big plotline will be continued in the next two stories._


	11. Race

_The Journey_

_Chapter 11_

John's quick reaction had saved them from the explosion itself, but not from the massive shockwave that followed in its wake. The inertial dampeners that normally prevented anyone inside the ship from being affected by the accelerations and decelerations of the ship were powerless when the shockwave collided with the small ship, propelling it off course. Before they had a chance to process what had happened, the ship's occupants were tossed around the innards of the vessel.

* * *

Frantic activity that was almost bordering on panic had broken out on Atlantis. The evacuation to their off-world sites was in full swing. All non-essential personnel was already gone and supplies were being gathered and sent through the gate as fast as possible. Over the past three years, there had been several drills, but this was the first time that there was a real threat. They were doing well, they were still ahead of schedule. Dr. Weir went back to her office. There was nothing she could do at the moment. She was still hoping that the rest of the team would return from Athos in time, before they had to disable to gate. They would be done with sending the supplies and remaining personnel in less than an hour and after that they were going to destroy the dialing system and disable the gate. Many hours had been spent debating plans for this day. They had all know that it would eventually come and Dr. Weir had to admit that she was surprised that it had taken three years for the Wraith to attack Atlantis directly. She'd always know that she'd be among the ones to stay behind in Atlantis until the end, no matter how it was going to end. While Rodney and John had been responsible for coming up with most of the plan, they were needed in the aftermaths. John had worked out how they could maximize the city's defenses with what little power they had and Rodney had rigged the dialing system with a naquadah bomb to prevent anyone from ever dialing Earth again. She hadn't told them yet, that they weren't going to be staying, as she had expected them to argue with her. But right now, she would be happy to be able to argue with them. They were off-world, probably in trouble and in less than an hour, they would be cut off from Atlantis for good.

* * *

"…Major Sheppard! Come on major, wake up!" 

Beckett's voice was nagging him, preventing him from drifting peacefully between blissful oblivion and harsh reality.

"Major Sheppard, I know that you are fine. Wake up!"

This time, John opened his eyes and as expected saw Dr. Beckett in his field of vision. John sat up and indeed, he didn't feel any pain or dizziness. He looked around and it all came back to him. The Ancient ship, the Wraith, the explosion of the temple. Why weren't the blow to smithereens?

"Why the hell didn't we blow up?" John asked no one in particular. Rodney still felt inclined to answer. He looked up from the consol he was hunched over and turned towards John. "It's the ship, it's smart. It must have timed it perfectly. Fast enough to escape the explosion but not too fast, either wise we would have smashed into the force field. It's actually quite impressive. This is definitely far more advanced than a Puddle Jumper. Makes you wonder what a really big Ancient ship would be like." McKay seemed to have gotten over the shock of recent events and was back to his usual scientific excitement.

"I have seen cave drawing of big ships in the sky. It is likely that those big ships were those of the Ancestors." Teyla who had been listening so far, joined the conversation.

"Or the Wraith, we have seen how big their ships can be. Speaking of ships, where are we going?"

"Atlantis, the shockwave just knocked us a bit of course, we'll get there in about three hours."

Nobody said anything in response. They all knew that they were going to be too late. The Wraith would reach Atlantis well ahead of them. While the city had some defense resources and without the Gate connected to a power source, there was even more power available for the shield, but either way, it was not going to last. They were no match for the Wraith. They might hold out for a while. But eventually the Wraith would win. John thought back to the Prophecy. It had foretold the fall of Atlantis.

The next hour passed in silence. The ship flew steadily on autopilot. Everyone had a lot on their mind. The last twenty-four hours had been long and taxing and the upcoming battle with their strongest enemy weighed heavily on everyone's mind. It was McKay who eventually broke the silence.

"How did you actually kill the Wraith back in the temple?"

"I'm not totally sure myself. " John shrugged.

"The Wraith are said to be vulnerable to the powers of the mind, according to the stories told among my people. We never had to chance to test that. Although there used to be telepaths among the Athosians, the gift has long since died out. We believed it had been given to them by the Ancestors."

"Yeah, you told me that before. That would explain what I saw when I confronted the old model Wraith in the control room. It was like reading someone's mind, but somehow, more…I don't know more…intimate. It was like I was inside his head. I could see all what he had seen, I knew everything that he knew."

"Major, that could be a serious advantage over the Wraith. What exactly did you learn, anything that might help us?"

"Maybe. I'm not sure it will help us. It's hard to get it all together in the right order. It was a lot of information all at once. And the Wraith wasn't exactly informed about anything up to date, but I learned something interesting about their history. You remember the hologram when we first came to Atlantis? It told us that they first encountered the Wraith on their native planet and accidentally woke them up, much like we did. What the hologram didn't mention was that the Wraith they met back then were quite different from the Wraith today. The Wraith we ran into at the temple is the old model so to speak."

"What happened?"

"I don't have all the details, I only know that the Wraith knows. The bottom line is, that when the Ancients found out that their weapons couldn't defeat the Wraith, they engineered a virus to kill them."

"As far as I know, the historians have never found any reference to such events. I cannot imagine that the Ancients would resort to genocide."

"Not every people are proud of their history. On Earth many societies have tried to twist and misrepresent their history." Beckett explained to Teyla. "We are often ashamed of whatour forefathers did."

"It's a bizarre concept." Teyla admitted. "I have a hard time imagining that the Ancients would try to erase any of their history."

"It actually makes sense. Because the virus that they had developed failed. A couple of Ancients let themselves be infected with the virus and sacrificed themselves to the Wraith. Once within the Wraith population the virus spread very rapidly. But instead of killing them, the Wraith adapted far more quickly than the Ancients had anticipated. In the end, the virus made them stronger than before. Originally, the Wraith could only feed off the Ancients because other races weren't compatible with them. With the virus, the Ancients had wanted to disable several genes within the Wraith, including some of the genes they shared with the Ancients. An unforeseen consequence was that the Wraith could now also feed on all other life forms. In their efforts to defeat the Wraith, the Ancients had turned them into a threat for the entire galaxy. In the beginning, the Wraith were small in numbers, but as their available food sources increased, so did their population. The temple has been used as a sort of research lab. The Ancients abandoned it when the Wraith were closing in on them. The creature was left behind, locked up until we unlocked the doors." John recounted what he had seen when he had invaded the mind of their enemy.

"Somehow it is both encouraging and terrifying to see that even the Ancients make mistakes. It would even be funny if the mistake of theirs wasn't about to costs us our lives."

"They didn't make a mistake with malice. It is impossible to know what any act can trigger. None of us knew that by coming to the Old City, we would bring about a Wraith attack."

Everyone was silent. During their time in the temple, they hadn't had much time to contemplate the implications, they had been too busy just trying to survive and find a way off the planet. The Wraith attack had only been a distant threat looming over their heads. No one needed to say it out loud, everyone knew that Atlantis wouldn't be able to withstand a full-on Wraith attack. They could power up the shields for a short while, but the Wraith just needed to wait until they ran out of power and then destroy them.

"I might have something!" McKay interrupted the silence. "Remember when I showed you the energy scan earlier. There were several small energy signatures with the ship. I didn't have the time to check them out because someone couldn't keep their hands to themselves and activated the self-destruct sequences. If you'll excuse me, I'll go and have a look at what's inside the storage compartment." McKay got up from his seat.

The time was passing slowly. It was quiet aside from the humming of the engines and the sounds of McKay rummaging through the contents of the cargo hold. John and Teyla sat on the floor, next to each other. Both were exhausted, still trying to process the events of the day. Neither of them heard Dr. Beckett approach. Only when he tapped John on the shoulder, the major looked up.

"What's up?"

"It's time for another shot, they seem to wear off rather quickly in humans."

"I'd prefer not to get one. We're going to fight the Wraith, they are vulnerable to telepathy. It might just give me the edge we need."

"You already overexerted yourself with the old Wraith today. You need a clear head in the battlefield. I can't have you distracted by all the thoughts and feelings floating around. It will only get you hurt. You take the shot or you are not setting foot on the station."

"You wouldn't. Not this time, this time it matters. We could lose Atlantis, you are not keeping me away." John said with a wry smile on his face.

"I know. But Atlantis needs you to be fit to fight."

"Atlantis needs every advantage we can get. This is something we can use against the Wraith and I'm not giving it up."

"I see, I can't persuade you otherwise. But I'll not hesitate to give you the shot later, against your will if necessary if your mental abilities become too much of a strain on you."

"You are going to be nowhere near any fighting, doc. With your healing ability, we can't afford to lose you. You're going to stay out of this. As soon as we reach Atlantis, you're going to go to one of the off-world sites." John insisted.

"What about those injured on Atlantis?" Beckett argued.

"One of the other doctors can treat them. Besides, the Wraith don't go for injuries, they are out to capture and kill." John reminded the doctor.

Beckett didn't reply, he could see John's point and part of him had to agree, but he couldn't just abandon his friends in a crisis, especially when he was the one best qualified the help them. Even though he was very inexperienced with his healing ability, he had already learned that he could heal fairly fast and that he could heal injuries that normally would be fatal. He had seen that by his own example. He could save lives that would otherwise be lost. He couldn't accept that.

* * *

There was a soft knock on here door. Dr. Weir knew who it was without having to turn around. Peter was going to tell her that they were reading to destroy the dialing system and disable the Gate. 

"Dr. Weir. Are you all right?"

"I'll be. I just thought that we would eventually find a way to go home, or at least find a way to let them know that we are still alive. But here we are, destroying our only chance to ever get back." She didn't turn around.

He didn't point out that in destroying their only way home they were saving Earth from a terrible enemy. They both knew it. There had never been any doubt about that.

"Dr. Zelenka says he is ready. He needs you to authorize the destruction mechanism."

"I want to give them all the time possible." Elizabeth said with determination. She was not giving up on some of her closest friends and best people without a fight.

"Twenty minutes at the most. But..." Peter hesitated.

Elizabeth didn't let him finish.

"They get every minute they can get. I'm not giving up on them."

"You can go ahead through the Gate then. I can handle it from here on. Dr. Zelenka has all the technical details under control and Sergeant Bates has just reported that all teams are ready. I'm only waiting for confirmation from Sergeant Hamlin from the Jumper Bay. It's all taken care of." Grodin tried to smile and failed miserably.

"I'm not leaving." Elizabeth said firmly.

"If you want to go over it one more time, we can still do that."

"No, I'm not leaving the City, I'm staying here." Elizabeth's voice was cold and made it clear that she would not accept compromise.

"Dr. Weir, with all due respect. We need you on the alpha site. You can't do that."

"I can and I will. This is my City and I will stay for the end. I'm not going to run from my command. That's not good leadership. You have a lot to learn." Elizabeth smiled her first genuine smile all day as Grodin stared at her, baffled.

"I've taken care of everything." She handed Peter a big envelope. "You go ahead to the alpha site. The last of our people should be leaving any minute."

"Uhhm, I don't suppose I can change your mind." Peter took the proffered envelope.

"No." Elizabeth replied simply and led Peter out of her office.

The End


End file.
